THE HOUSE OF THE DEAD 2: Remake

the original is better in everyway. the stiff campy voice acting was one of the best things about the original and they "updated" it to where it is still cringe but not fun. Also the game is ugly. The old game has out of date graphics and is still way more fun to look at.

Feels unfinished. Plays like crap, looks like crap and sounds like crap. Don't bother.

This is a profoundly disappointing port of one of my favorite arcade shooters ever. How are you gonna leave flashlights out of the darkest parts of the game, in places where the original release (both Arcade *and* Dreamcast) had them? And I don't know what the deal is with the camera hiccups on the second phase of Tower, but it took a cherished experience and did VERY wrong by it. Add to that several bugs where enemies that should be dead (read: NO UPPER TORSO LEFT) aren't and a lack of Sinden light gun support, and you get a mildly faithful remake that pales in comparison to not only it's remade predecessor, but to the source material from which it is based. I would wait for a patch or a sale.

The gameplay is there, the rails are in place, the guns are loaded, even the original soundtrack is present. Certain assets feel out of place with the environment, particularly the bosses. The art feels disjointed, abandoned and mismatched. Everything considered, the entirety of the original game is here. The goal was to remake it and I would say it succeeded. There were missing textures in chapter two for a lot of the world, but the rails kept the game moving. The voice work sounds as if it has clear intent, but poor execution. The sound design is overcompressed, limited into the grave like the first game. Instead of making things sound big, they sound small and undefined. Even with all of its problems as a free-standing title, as a remake it retains the actual game within the original title. This is not for those seeking the original House of the Dead 2. This is for the player that asks, "House of the Dead? Yes."